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Department of Antiquities

Ancient Cyprus in the Ashmolean Museum

The A.G. Leventis Gallery

The Ashmolean Museum has been associated with the study of Cypriot archaeology since the late 19th century, and has sponsored several excavations on the island of Cyprus. Material from these excavations is represented in the internationally acclaimed collections, which produce surprising and often entertaining insights into the lives of Cyprus’s ancient inhabitants. The gallery of Ancient Cyprus provides an excellent resource for the study of the archaeology of the island, rich in natural resources and pivotally sited in the north-eastern Mediterranean Sea.

This gallery covers the following themes: the changes and continuities in culture and representation of the people of one location over most of human history, the documentation of the island of Cyprus as a place where the major cultures and powers of the ancient Mediterranean and Near East met, interacted, and were transformed, and the history of modern archaeology and collecting for the Ashmolean.